Dinner in Lyon

Last weekend we made a trip to Lyon. It's a quick 2 hour TGV ride, and it was a nice weekend getaway.

Lyon is France's gastronomic capitol. Quite a feat, considering the elevated standard of food in France to begin with. So the main point of our visit was to go have a really good meal. We were not disappointed.

We ate at Leon de Lyon. I mainly chose it because I wanted a place where we could do a set menu of courses, and the set menu here appealed to us. It's a Michelin two star, but it gets 4 Michelin forks. Stars rate service, how nice the setting is, is the bathroom nice, etc. Forks rates the food, so I tend to pay more attention to that.

We had the sommelier chose a wine from the Rhone valley (close to Lyon), and it was a very nice Syrah based wine. It was a Saint Joseph AOC, Domain de Yves Cuilleron 2000 l'Amarybelle. The Lyon wine shop said we wouldn't be able to find that year for sale in a shop, perhaps Leon de Lyon hoovered it all up.

Here is the menu:
Two courses of Amuse Bouche (chef's complementary appetizers) , some wonton bits and veloute of celery.

Scallops and Langoustines (like a saltwater crayfish) in a frothy cream sauce tasting like a shrimp bisque.

Half a lobster in winter vegetables and a clear broth.

Chicken Bresse - My fav. Slow cooked chicken with black truffle slices inserted under the skin, served with a cream foie gras sauce, and topped off with ground black truffle. It was truly amazing. Served with a vegetable terrine.

Cheese course - Two men carry a huge cheese tray sagging under the weight of roughly 15-20 different cheeses, and you pick a few to try. Gooey nutty cheeses to a nice grainy Compte. Drool.

Pre-dessert course - petit fours, and a dish of chocolate truffles.

Dessert - Nougat ice cream, crunchy-chewy vanilla macaroons, on a bed of cooked figs.

We enjoyed 3 hours of eating, and very good service, and the unfortunate ending of paying a large bill. You literally have to prepare for a meal like this by watching what you eat for the preceding two days, making sure you keep things light and simple so that your system can handle unending food for 3 hours.


Check out the video in the lower right of this page:

http://www.leondelyon.com/uk/navigation.htm

Lyon is also the home to the french puppet Guignol, and so we enjoyed some Guignol sights as well, including a really funky museum of Guignol. A few pics (too busy eating to take pictures this trip):

http://picasaweb.google.com/suzypics2